John Hutchinson (Colonel)

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Colonel John Hutchinson
Colonel John Hutchinson

Sir John Hutchinson (1615 - 1664) was one of the Puritan leaders, and a prominent Roundhead in the English Civil War to the extent of being the 13th of 39 Commissioners to sign the death-warrant of King Charles I. He was the son of Sir Thomas Hutchinson (1587-1643). John Hutchinson was Lord of Radcliffe after 1643.

Hutchinson broke partnership as a republican with Cromwell when Cromwell became Lord Protector and assumed sovereign power in all but name, and sullenly refused to be reconciled to the Protector, though he begged him towards his end beseechingly as his old comrade in arms. Colonel Hutchinson studied at Cambridge before his marriage to Lady Lucy Apsley in London. Colonel Hutchinson was the governor of Nottingham Castle. After the Civil War he was elected MP for Nottingham in 1646, taking his father's seat in Parliament. He was also a member of the Convention Parliament until banned by the House of Commons from any public office for his part in the Regicide. Charles II signed the Declaration of Breda which was an amnesty to all involved in the English Civil War, which meant Hutchinson was to be a free man. It also paved the way for Charles I son to become King, as Charles II. The House of Commons voted to remove Hutchinson,s name as a Regicide. The House of Lords ruled with the House of Commons on the issue. Hutchinson was imprisoned in Sandown Castle in Kent. His wife Lucy went before the House of Lords to gain his release, but to no avail. He died on September 11, 1664 after drinking wine in his prison cell with two gentlemen. The two gentlemen died within two months themselves. He is buried in the small church at Owthorpe, his family estate.

Lady Lucy Apsley Hutchinson was the author of a book on the history of the English Civil War. Although the book was not published until several years after her death, she had known many of the people in that conflict and was in an ideal position to chronicle the events of the war.

[edit] Genealogy

John Hutchinson was the son of Sir Thomas Hutchinson and Lady Margret Byron of Newstead Abbey. He was married to Lady Lucy Apsley, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley Lord Lieutenant of the Tower of London. John and Lucy had 9 children.

[edit] Literature

  • Lucy Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, to which are Added the Letters and Other Papers, revised by C. H. Firth (two volumes, London, 1885)
  • C. H. Firth, in Dictionary of National Biography, volume xxviii (London, 1891)

[edit] References